Stefaan Verhulst in AI & Society: Where and When AI and CI Meet

In a new article for the journal AI & Society, Network chief of research Stefaan Verhulst discusses bringing together Artificial Intelligence and Collective Intelligence. The piece explores the potential for AI meeting CI to address challenges and fill gaps associated with both innovations when undertaken in isolation.

Abstract:

This paper seeks to explore the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Collective Intelligence (CI), within the context of innovating how we govern. It starts from the premise that advances in technology provide policy makers with two important new assets: data and connected people. The application of AI and CI allows them to leverage these assets toward solving public problems. Yet both AI and CI have serious challenges that may limit their value within a governance context, including biases embedded in datasets and algorithms, undermining trust in AI; and high transaction costs to manage people’s engagement limiting CI to scale.

The main argument of this paper is that some of the challenges of AI and CI can in fact be addressed through greater interaction of CI and AI. In particular, the paper argues for:

Augmented Collective Intelligence where AI may enable CI to scale;

Human-Driven Artificial Intelligence where CI may humanize AI.

Several real-world examples are provided throughout the paper to illustrate emerging trends toward both types of intelligence; and their applications to solve public problems or make policy decision differently.

Sections

About

Partners

About

Convened and organized by the GovLab, and made possible by five years of funding support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Opening Governance works to develop the blueprints for more effective and legitimate democratic institutions to the end of improving people’s lives.